Rumble Strip

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Rowell Nov 14, 2017

Show notes

This fall my friend and I were going for a walk and as we walked past a small barn set down off the Upper Road in Calais, we heard someone from the barn call up to us and say, ‘You wanna come see some pigs?’

Of course we wanted to see some pigs.

John Rowell showed us his new piglets and I went back a few weeks later to hang out with John and his brother Eddie and record a conversation. Here’s a few minutes from that night.

**The Museum of Everyday Life** Oct 28, 2017
Show notes

The mission of The Museum of Everyday Life is “a heroic, slow-motion cataloguing of the quotidian–a detailed, theatrical expression of gratitude and love for the miniscule and unglamorous experience of daily life in all its forms.”

The museum’s home is in a barn on Route 16 in the Northeast Kingdom. It is my favorite museum. This is a show featuring the museum’s creator, Clare Dolan.

**Credits**

This show is co-produced by Erica Heilman and **Mark Davis**. Mark is my friend and a very good journalist at Seven Days. Here are some of my favorite articles from Mark:

Feuding in Victory

Death by opiates in 2016

Final conversations with overdose victims

A fond rembrance of Howard Frank Mosher

Game warden
**Pictures from the Museum of Everyday Life, in summer and winter**

One of my favorite things in the toothbrush exhibit.

Catastrophe and Grace Oct 16, 2017

Show notes

Rob Mermin had a career as a mime clown for forty years, then in 1987 he started a circus company here in Vermont called Circus Smirkus. Three years ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

This is a story about movement, the loss of control of movement…catastrophe and grace.

About Rob

Rob Mermin trained in classical mime with Etienne Decroux and Marcel Marceau and has performed in European circus, theater, TV and film for forty years. He is an author, director, university lecturer, former Dean of Ringling Bros. Clown College, and founder of the award-winning international company Circus Smirkus (www.smirkus.org).

Rob’s awards include Copenhagen’s Gold Clown; the Bessie Award; Best Director Prize at the former Soviet Union’s International Festival on the Black Sea; the Lund Family Center’s “It Takes A Village Award”; the Vermont Arts Council Award of Merit, and the 2008 Governor’s Award for Excellence, Vermont’s highest honor in the arts. Rob lives in central Vermont.

To learn more about Rob Mermin, click here.

Thank you Tobin Anderson for your help.

And here’s a link to a book about Marceau written by an awesome central Vermont author, Leda Schubert!

Hill Farm Sep 24, 2017

Show notes

Peter Dunning’s farm is a Vermont hill farm. It’s a hundred and thirty-six acres of forest and orchards and wet spots and steep, rocky pasture, picked over by farmers for hundreds of years. It’s the kind of place that does not lend itself to the industrial production of anything. Instead it lends itself to the production of…everything.

Peter has farmed here, mostly alone, for nearly forty years. Now he’s getting done. The animals are gone. The farm is growing up around him.

Here’s his story.

Credits

I learned of Peter Dunning from a documentary, Peter and the Farm. It’s stunning. Watch it if you can….

Music for this show by David Schulman and Quiet Life Motel

Thank you Geof Hewitt for your help with the poetry!

This show also features the last verse of a remarkable poem called Marshall Washer, by Vermont poet Hayden Carruth. Here’s the full text.

Waitress Sep 01, 2017

Show notes

My mother used to say that everyone should waitress at least once.

So I did. And I failed.

In this program, I talk with some of the finest waitstaff in central Vermont about life in the business of serving your food.

Appreciation:

Thanks to Jay at Sarducci’s and Brian at the Wayside Diner for lining up interviews in these two fine establishments. Additional interviews with Josh Larkin and Jodi DeGuzman.

Mind Windows Jul 28, 2017

Show notes

Mind Windows is a public radio program that gives your mind a chance to open its windows. Open them and then…see what happens!

Our guest today is Morgantha Prentiss, a director with New York’s off Broadway Lynx Throttle Theatre. Last year, she co-created and directed the musical, Lambs and Order, in which actors re-create the classic police procedural but as a musical, and with a cast wearing paper-mache lamb masks. The musical was a hit. It was extended several times, and transferred to New York’s Public Theater where it got was nominated for an OBIE for Best New Musical.

Credits

Mind Windows is written by Sarah Miller. It might become its own podcast but for now it will make periodic appearances on Rumble Strip, and I have no doubt it will open your mind. The part of Morgantha was read by my friend Kate Gleason, an actor and director who lives in Denver Colorado with her dog Emerson. Sarah Miller is a writer who lives in Nevada City California. She has a dog called Merle. Recording studio and technical support by Ms. Tara Falk with the help of her dogs, Trout and Kate.

The music for this show was purchased from a stock music house. It’s called Starlit Landscape.

Plain Life Jul 08, 2017

Show notes

A few weeks ago I got a call from my friend Susan Randall, the private investigator you might remember from previous shows. She said that ‘T.O.’–a former client in a federal public defender case–had just been released from prison seven days before, after serving a six year bid. He was trying to figure out what to do next and also clearly trying to figure out how to manage the world outside prison. Where people are just walking around. Susan said she and T.O. were having lunch and she asked me to join them. After lunch, T.O. and I drove down to the waterfront in Burlington to talk in my car.

I wanted to try to understand what it’s like to be seven days out of jail, with no housing, no money, and no family. I wanted to know what it’s like to adjust to freedom after years of confinement.

Here’s what he said.

Sylvan Esso is a Good Band Jun 29, 2017

Show notes

The first time I learned of Amelia Meath was in an email exchange. She’d written me a nice note about Rumble Strip and at the end she wrote–in rather an understated way–‘P.S. I’m in a band. It’s called Sylvan Esso.’ And because I’m old, I’d never heard of Sylvan Esso.

So I looked her up online and I spent the rest of that night listening to every version of every Sylvan Esso song I could find, really loud and over and over. If there had been an album cover, I would have been clutching it to my breast.

Ever since their first single in 2013, Sylvan Esso has gotten famous pretty fast, and they tour all over he world. Last month they played in Burlington, and I spent a rainy day talking with Amelia and Nick in their tour bus before the show. We talked about their music, touring, and the complexities of success. And there’s a lot of music in the show.

It’s like a musical.

Links

For links to their albums, tour schedule, and all various and sundry, visit sylvanesso.com

Police Log, Burning Lawn Chairs Edition Jun 19, 2017

Show notes

It’s been some time since we’ve heard reports from the police about criminal activity here in Vermont. And I’m sorry to say that so far this summer, it’s been…busy. There’s pretzel-related violence and lawnmower theft. And more trouble at Dunkin’ Donuts.

Here’s your summer report from Vermont police, reported by Scott Carrier, producer of Home of the Brave.

Crime and Punishment Under Trump Jun 07, 2017

Show notes

Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a memo to all federal prosecutors, with new directives for charging and sentencing in criminal cases. He’s directed federal prosecutors to charge defendants with the most severe penalties possible and pursue mandatory minimum sentences where they’re available. We’re headed back into the war on drugs from the 80s and 90s…a war that did not end drug use or make anyone safer. Instead it ripped apart families, packed American prisons and resulted in long sentences for a lot of non violent drug offenders. Everyone seemed to agree that it was a disaster. Hell, even the Koch brothers agreed. During the Obama administration, there was bipartisan support for sentencing reform. And for the first time in decades, federal inmate numbers were down, and the Justice Dept made plans to stop sending inmates to private prisons.

But last month, Sessions decided to relaunch the war on drugs.

This is a show about a new dawn, a new day…crime and punishment in the Trump era.

Credits

This show is produced in collaboration with Seven Days. Click here for Mark Davis’ article on Jeff Sessions’ new charging directives.

Dan Sedon, Mark Kaplan, and Lisa Shelkrot are some of the smartest, most accomplished attorneys in Vermont. If ever you’re in trouble, I highly recommend calling one of them. You will be in excellent hands. For more information on each of them, click on their names below.

Dan Sedon, Esq., Sedon and Ericson, P.C., Chelsea, Vermont

Lisa Shelkrot, Esq., Langrock Sperry & Wool, Burlington, Vermont

Mark Kaplan, Esq., Kaplan and Kaplan, Burlington, Vermont

Music for this show is from Vermont musicians Peter Cressy, Brian Clark, and Mike Donofrio

Many thanks to Susan Randall, Mark Davis and former U.S. Attorney Charles Tetzlaff for their help on this show.